All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

Multi-family definitely works in Montclair if you can find a deal, which is the impossible part. They are at such a premium, people are paying way up for them and even with exorbitant rents it's hard to cash flow early. But they appreciate well here. Single-family can also be good for a one-year rental as many people move here and will look for a year and prefer to take a nice rental.

You have to work for a brokerage if you don't have your broker's license. The biggest pro is property access. When you have your license you can see any home on the market and don't have to wait for an agent to get back to you. Another pro is that most of the agents you work with won't understand investing and will be working in their best interests, not yours because no non-investor agent wants to show you 10 dumps on a Saturday just so you can lowball 4 of them. On listings, pending your brokerage, you can save a lot of money, but only if you are a good agent who knows how to do a flip listing right. The cons are just fees, but the access is worth it. MLS fees, brokerage fees. Most investor-agents look for smaller brokerages where the splits are better, the costs are less, and they don't require much. It's definitely worth having.

I don't mind disclosing and use the license as a great alternative to homeowner who are unrealistic about their price. Like, oh you want market price for your property? I can list it for you to get you more offers, but to do that we will need to put a sign up, a lockbox on, have access all the time for showings, you will need to clean up, organize. They've already stopped me by now. Disclosure is just part of it, it's how you explain your license that sets you apart.

You can't get a team together without a pipeline of deals. What do you need a team for anyway before your first deal? Why are the signing on? How many deals have you done? What are your resources? How many properties have you viewed in-person and evaluated in your life? How much money do you have to start the business and to invest in RE? These are all things that come way before coming up with a name and years before you need a team.

Yes @Jay Hinrichs! Thanks for chiming in. It's just hard to listen to newbie investors talking about deals, but they haven't even seen one in person. They don't know what to look for, they just know to account for 5% on a spreadsheet. Too many courses and coaches saying it's easy to invest in real estate, but it's not easy to be good at it long-term.

I've been reading so many posts by new investors looking to close their first deal, but what they talk about the most are the calculator projections and constant analysis that they are doing from home. I wanted experienced investors to weigh in and remind all the new people out there that you can't learn about REI without seeing hundreds of properties. I've been doing it for 30 years and I still look at a minimum of 7 properties a week just for fun and to stay on top of the local market. It certainly helps that I have a RE license and can get into properties whenever I want, but I also operate a separate off-market investment business. You can't get a feel for real estate investment as a career, hobby, or side hustle if you aren't looking at properties every day and having discussions about how you can help sellers or other investors. You should never buy your first property until you've seen 50-100 ones that didn't work out. Thoughts?

You have to think outside of the calculators and formulas. They only help you so much. How many properties have you analyzed using these methods? Of those properties, how many did you see in person? How many properties have you done a full walk-through of? If the answer is 0 or less than 10 percent, stop analyzing properties from a computer and go see them in person. No first-time investor should buy anything without looking at 50-100 properties first so they know what they are getting into. Agents may not want to show you 25 crappy multi-family houses, but that's what it takes to learn. A calculator on BP won't prepare you for house hacking, neither will these forums. Because until you are in your first investment, it's all what could happen, what the costs should be or could be. Then your sewer line breaks and all of that pre-analysis you've done doesn't matter. Use the formulas to help your mind, but go see as many properties as you can to help your real-life confidence in how it will work.

I always lead with occupancy laws for the city or town based on the bedrooms so it's off of me and not just focused on the lease. It's always hard with overoccupancy, but it is very common. I try to think of all the good possibilities when a situation like this arises, but it's harder to know if you aren't local. Like, since the dad moved in does the original tenant have to take care of him more? And if so, might it help the upkeep (not the wear and tear, that is surely aggravated by more people) to have this new boyfriend there? Sometimes when a tenant has more people we have a knee-jerk reaction as landlords that it can't be good, but once in a while, that new tenant may be better than the old tenant and may provide more help which means less calls and less maintenance. Of course, they could be worse and make it more of a sh*tshow, but it's at least worth seeing if there is anything positive about it. But in the end, the occupancy is too high and a hazard.

I don't see the need to turn it into a wholesale deal if both parties are unlicensed and just acting as investors. There is no prohibition that I am aware of in granting finder's fees for an off-market transaction where all parties do not have a real estate license. I am a former attorney, but this does not constitute legal advice. If there is a seller, a third party and you, and no one has a license, what precludes you from paying them 1% after closing on your own? I don't think anything.

Echoing a lot of what others said, but the foundation is most important especially the basement walls for cracking and of course, the support systems and ceiling for any give. Knob and tube is huge if there have been no renovations and can also be coupled with outdated boxes from Federal Pacific which are a hazard in an of themselves. In regard to the sewer (hopefully not septic), you can get a plumber to do a sewer inspection with a camera down the entire line to check for cracks and to see what it's made of. If clay, you are in trouble and there will likely be breaks and need a full replacement from the house to the street. I've done it, it's not cheap. Asbestos around heating systems in the basement and residue mold from untreated leaks. Once you can identify black mold, in particular, you can trace it to its source. Your main concern is that it is not behind the walls or between floors growing.

@Shane Craig if we bought it now we would have done more research on the wetlands and tried to get something cleared by the town, but we bought it at a foreclosure sale a LONG time ago. Obviously, for the tanks, we do scans now, but these ones were buried at the far edge of a property, not connected to anything. Buried back there for a reason. It was weird. It can always be worse.